tarnished gold

[bardiphouka]

People talk about the Golden Age of Science Fiction, which is 12. Err I mean which lasted from the 30s-50s. How do I feel about said golden age? Let's just say I am curious to see what would happen if the Tea Party would rediscover it. With a few exceptions, it tended to be misanthropic,racist, sometimes fundamentalists and on frequent occasions libertarian.

On the other hand, it did spark an interest in science, albeit mostly in boys (thank you Isaac for variances on almost everything I am talking about). It provided us with a lone figure winning against odds (wonders where SF would have been without the Western) Of course that lone figure was white,heterosexual and male.

And yet, during the Great Depression, two wars and the Cold War it continued to give us hope. And then came the two sixties towers...New Wave and the Return of Fantasy.

Comments

[pooklaroux.livejournal.com]

I started out reading classic sci-fi and I definitely have a place in my heart for it still, even despite its sometimes racist, misogynistic, wrong-headed opinions, like that embarrassing old great uncle who sometimes uses really offensive words because that what people called them when he was growing up.

I just remember how amazed I was when I discovered that Andre Norton was a woman! Heh, I always knew in my heart that sci-fi was for girls, too.

[bardiphouka.livejournal.com]

I had dabbled, but mostly came of age at roughly the same time as New Wave, just in case that did not show.

The first 'sf' female writer I remember, apart from Mary Shelly was James Triptree Jr. who I think should have gotten a Grand Master.

quiz..can anyone, without looking, name the three women who HAVE gotten the Grand Master Award?

[pooklaroux.livejournal.com]

The first sci fi I ever read was Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars series. I was totally hooked from that point on. (I'm guessing this was 1975 or so.)

[jamiethered.livejournal.com]

I started reading hard SF at age 11. Picked up Cycle of Fire by Hal Clement (sp?). Obviously, I was strongly influenced by my father's tastes, since he was my pusher back then. He'd already read all of the classics, so I discovered them later and then I took the road into Fantasy. I do still enjoy SF, but I have far less time to read these days and a much wider range of works I enjoy.